Wednesday, June 09, 2010

Beginning sentences with “so”

So what's up with this latest wave in the trend of beginning sentences with conjunctions? A New York Times article explains:

“So” may be the new “well,” “um,” “oh” and “like.” No longer content to lurk in the middle of sentences, it has jumped to the beginning, where it can portend many things: transition, certitude, logic, attentiveness, a major insight.

We are decimating the rules of grammar. “So” at the beginning of a sentence might mean “now hear this” as in “So---are you ready for the grand unveiling?” It could mean “What I'm about to say follows logically” or it could be an alert for incoming background as in “So: you're a hospitalist having a particularly difficult call night, and along comes...”

3 comments:

So, I find this annoying too! Our university tour guides bring groups up to our hallway saying, "So, this is the XXX office." (They sound like a caricature of a Jewish mother: "So, from hunger we're starving already..."

Very common for doctors to begin sentences with the word "so". It's not proper English and very unnecessary. Over used filler words may be a way to collect your thoughts. Filler words like actually, basically, like, so, etc. Just be confident in your speech and get to the point. Really, annoying for educated people, like doctors to overuse this relatively new trend. Just stop.